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99-499: The term "Red Sticks" (alternatively "Redsticks" or "Red Clubs"), was derived from the name of the two-foot-long wooden war club, or atássa, used by the Creek. The preferred weapon of the Red Stick warriors, this war club had a red-painted wooden handle with a curve at its head that held a small piece of iron, steel, or bone projecting about two inches. The Red Sticks faction came primarily from

198-566: A vanguard , flank guard or rearguard to screen a tactical position or a larger body of friendly troops from enemy advances. They are usually deployed in a skirmish line , an irregular open formation that is much more spread out in depth and in breadth than a traditional line formation . Their purpose is to harass the enemy by engaging them in only light or sporadic combat to delay their movement, disrupt their attack, or weaken their morale. Such tactics are collectively called skirmishing . A battle with only light, relatively indecisive combat

297-484: A "heavy dose" of their pre-existing beliefs including matrilineality. Tuareg women enjoy high status within their society, compared with their Arab counterparts and with other Berber tribes: Tuareg social status is transmitted through women, with residence often matrilocal . Most women could read and write, while most men were illiterate, concerning themselves mainly with herding livestock and other male activities. The livestock and other movable property were owned by

396-515: A chance to surrender and instead the Creeks fired on the party offering it. The fighting lasted until sunset. During the battle atrocities took place. In one instance a five-year-old boy was killed with the butt of a musket because "someday the boy would be a warrior." Another person killed an Indian who was just sitting down because he wanted to brag about it. After the fighting was over some soldiers started to cut skin from Indians to make bridle reins. In

495-658: A civil war as the Creek struggled among themselves for their future; after the Lower Creek issued a statement of "unqualified and unanimous friendship for the United States", tensions broke out into violence. Red Sticks attacked the Lower Creek towns. The Red Sticks were backed by the British, who were engaged in the War of 1812 against the United States, and the Spanish, who were trying to retain

594-536: A different household. According to this source of further information about the Akan, "A man is strongly related to his mother's brother (wɔfa) but only weakly related to his father's brother. This must be viewed in the context of a polygamous society in which the mother/child bond is likely to be much stronger than the father/child bond. As a result, in inheritance, a man's nephew (sister's son) will have priority over his own son. Uncle-nephew relationships therefore assume

693-531: A different pattern, however: Example 1. Members of the (matrilineal) clan culture Minangkabau do not even have a surname or family name , see this culture's own section below. In contrast, members do have a clan name , which is important in their lives although not included in the member's name. Instead, one's name is just one's given name . Example 2. Members of the (matrilineal) clan culture Akan , see its own section below, also do not have matrilineal surnames and likewise their important clan name

792-561: A diversionary tactic. Most of their influence with the tribes flowed from the Great Lakes region. That was until Tecumseh visited the Upper Creeks and convinced them to make war against the United States. When incomplete reports of the Creek War reached Vice Admiral Sir Alexander F. I. Cochrane , he was impressed – though he did not know the Creek were in a civil war and that other tribes like

891-442: A dominant position." Certain other aspects of the Akan culture are determined patrilineally rather than matrilineally. There are 12 patrilineal Ntoro (which means spirit) groups, and everyone belongs to their father's Ntoro group but not to his (matrilineal) family lineage and abusua . Each patrilineal Ntoro group has its own surnames, taboos, ritual purifications, and etiquette. A recent (2001) book provides this update on

990-629: A foothold in Florida and in territories to the west of the Louisiana Territory . The Red Sticks were involved with the skirmish that become known as the Battle of Burnt Corn . The armed conflict occurred when a group of Red Sticks were attacked by American white militiamen while returning from Florida with arms in 1813. After the initial assault, the Red Sticks regrouped and defeated these troops. While

1089-436: A matrilineal descent system , an individual is considered to belong to the same descent group as their mother. This ancient matrilineal descent pattern is in contrast to the currently more popular pattern of patrilineal descent from which a family name is usually derived. The matriline of historical nobility was also called their enatic or uterine ancestry, corresponding to the patrilineal or "agnatic" ancestry. In

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1188-505: A minor sapper role by placing cheval de frise to deter cavalry. A skirmish force screening the main body of infantry became so important to any army in the field that eventually, all major European powers developed specialised skirmishing infantry. Examples included the German Jäger , the French voltigeurs and the British riflemen . Muskets were the predominant infantry weapon of

1287-478: A particular ancestress. Several lineages are grouped into a political unit headed by a chief and a council of elders, each of whom is the elected head of a lineage – which itself may include multiple extended-family households. Public offices are thus vested in the lineage, as are land tenure and other lineage property. In other words, lineage property is inherited only by matrilineal kin. "The principles governing inheritance stress sex, generation and age – that

1386-625: A skirmish role was particularly effective in the Battle of Cowpens . The character of Natty Bumppo in James Fenimore Cooper 's novel The Last of the Mohicans was notably called La Longue Carabine by the French because of his skill with the long rifle , which was common among the Colonials. During the Napoleonic Wars , skirmishers played a key role in battles; they attempted to disrupt

1485-467: A social actuality of sexual equality." According to LeBow (based on Schlegel's work), in the Hopi, "gender roles ... are egalitarian .... [and] [n]either sex is inferior." LeBow concluded that Hopi women "participate fully in ... political decision-making." According to Schlegel, "the Hopi no longer live as they are described here" and "the attitude of female superiority is fading". Schlegel said

1584-559: A strong mobile force for the Greek and the Macedonian armies. The Celts did not, in general, favour ranged weapons . The exceptions tended not to include the use of skirmishers. The Britons used the sling and javelin extensively but for siege warfare, not skirmishing. Among the Gauls , likewise, the bow was employed to defend a fixed position. The Celts' lack of skirmishers cost them dearly during

1683-519: A version of male-preference matrilineal seniority , favoring brothers over sisters in the current generation (but allowing sisters to inherit if no brothers remained), but passing to the next generation through the eldest female line. In A Map of Virginia John Smith of Jamestown explains: His [ Chief Powhatan 's] kingdome descendeth not to his sonnes nor children: but first to his brethren, whereof he hath 3 namely Opitchapan, Opechancanough , and Catataugh; and after their decease to his sisters. First to

1782-413: A warning that anyone who retreated without being compelled by significant force would be executed. Jackson's army arrived on March 26 and set up camp six miles away near the site of the battle of Emuckfau Creek. The day before, the Creek's commander, William Weatherford, left to be with his pregnant wife, leaving Chief Menewa in charge. Jackson's cavalry, under the command of Coffee, left at 3 a.m. to cross

1881-751: Is also matrilocal , a man will exercise guardianship rights not over the children he fathers but over his sisters' children, who are viewed as 'his own flesh'. These children's biological father – unlike an uncle who is their mother's brother and thus their caregiver – is in some sense a 'stranger' to them, even when affectionate and emotionally close. According to Steven Pinker , attributing to Kristen Hawkes, among foraging groups matrilocal societies are less likely to commit female infanticide than are patrilocal societies. Some 20 million Akan live in Africa, particularly in Ghana and Ivory Coast . (See as well their subgroups,

1980-531: Is discussed in the subsection Role of the Tokoor of one of the above-listed main articles. The Tuareg (Arabic:طوارق, sometimes spelled Touareg in French, or Twareg in English) are a large Berber ethnic confederation found across several nations in north Africa, including Niger , Mali and Algeria . The Tuareg are clan -based, and are (still, in 2007) "largely matrilineal". The Tuareg are Muslim , but mixed with

2079-417: Is less common than among farmers. So for example, among the pygmies of Aka, which includes Biaka and Benzene, a young couple usually settles in her husband's camp after the birth of their first child. However, the husband can stay in the wife's community, where one of his brothers or sisters can join him. This can happen in societies where the bride's service is practiced, or in any other societies. According to

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2178-401: Is no mention of them in his account of the fighting. Often, Greek historians ignored them altogether, but Xenophon distinguished them explicitly from the statary troops. It was far cheaper to equip oneself as lightly armed than a fully-armed hoplite. Indeed, it was common for the lightly armed to go into battle equipped with stones. The low status of skirmishers reflected the low status of

2277-404: Is not included in their name. However, members' names do commonly include second names which are called surnames but which are not routinely passed down from either father or mother to all their children as a family name . Note well that if a culture did include one's clan name in one's name and routinely handed it down to all children in the descent group then it would automatically be

2376-456: Is often called a skirmish even if heavier troops are sometimes involved. Skirmishers can be either regular army units that are temporarily detached to perform skirmishing or specialty units that are specifically armed and trained for such low-level irregular warfare tactics. Light infantry, light cavalry, and irregular units often specialize in skirmishing. Skirmishers' open formations and smaller numbers can give them superior mobility over

2475-400: Is that when sisters and their mothers help each other with childcare, the descent line tends to be matrilineal rather than patrilineal. Biological anthropologists are now widely agreed that cooperative childcare was a development crucial in making possible the evolution of the unusually large human brain and characteristically human psychology. Although others refute the claims of supporters of

2574-415: Is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline, their mother's lineage , and which can involve the inheritance of property and titles. A matriline is a line of descent from a female ancestor to a descendant of either gender in which the individuals in all intervening generations are mothers. In

2673-431: Is to say, men come before women and seniors before juniors." When a woman's brothers are available, a consideration of generational seniority stipulates that the line of brothers be exhausted before the right to inherit lineage property passes down to the next senior genealogical generation of sisters' sons. Finally, "it is when all possible male heirs have been exhausted that the females" may inherit. Each lineage controls

2772-856: The Trobrianders , Dobu and Nagovisi of Melanesia; the Nairs , some Thiyyas & Muslims of Kerala and the Mogaveeras , Billavas & the Bunts of Karnataka in south India ; the Khasi , Jaintia and Garo of Meghalaya in northeast India and Bangladesh ; the Ngalops and Sharchops of Bhutan ; the Mosuo of China ; the Kayah of Southeast Asia, the Picti of Scotland ,

2871-503: The Ashanti , also called Asante, Akyem , Bono , Fante , Akwamu .) Many but not all of the Akan still (2001) practice their traditional matrilineal customs, living in their traditional extended family households, as follows. The traditional Akan economic, political and social organization is based on maternal lineages, which are the basis of inheritance and succession. A lineage is defined as all those related by matrilineal descent from

2970-1152: The Basques of Spain and France ; the Ainu of Japan , the Akan including the Ashanti , Bono , Akwamu , Fante of Ghana ; most groups across the so-called " matrilineal belt " of south-central Africa; the Nubians of Southern Egypt & Sudan and the Tuareg of west and north Africa; the Serer of Senegal , The Gambia and Mauritania . Most of the example cultures in this article are based on (matrilineal) clans . Any clan might possibly contain from one to several or many descent groups or family groups – i.e., any matrilineal clan might be descended from one or several or many unrelated female ancestors. Also, each such descent group might have its own family name or surname , as one possible cultural pattern. The following two example cultures each follow

3069-507: The Battle of New Orleans six months later. The time in question was one of increasing pressure on Creek territory by European American settlers. The Creek of the Lower Towns, who were closer to the settlers and had more mixed-race families, had already been forced to make numerous land cessions to the Americans. The Red Stick War, more commonly called the Creek War (1813–1814), was essentially

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3168-611: The Cegandum and Kagaw , whose historical account is enshrined in Serer religion, mythology and traditions . In Serer culture, inheritance is both matrilineal and patrilineal. It all depends on the asset being inherited – i.e. whether the asset is a paternal asset – requiring paternal inheritance ( kucarla ) or a maternal asset – requiring maternal inheritance ( den yaay or ƭeen yaay ). The actual handling of these maternal assets (such as jewelry, land, livestock, equipment or furniture, etc.)

3267-572: The Gallic Invasion of Greece of 279 BC when they found themselves helpless in the face of Aetolian skirmishing tactics. Thracians were famous for their skirmish war tactics and offered their services as mercenaries more than once in the Greek civil wars in ancient times. In the Punic Wars , despite the Roman and Carthaginian armies' different organisations, both had the role for skirmishers as screening

3366-599: The Joos matriclan which also became a dynasty in Waalo (Senegal). Some matriclans or maternal clans form part of Serer medieval and dynastic history, such as the Guelowars . The most revered clans tend to be rather ancient and form part of Serer ancient history . These proto-Serer clans hold great significance in Serer religion and mythology . Some of these proto-Serer matriclans include

3465-555: The Nair community or Aliyasantana in the Bunt and the Billava community, and both communities were subdivided into clans . This system was exceptional in the sense that it was one of the few traditional systems in western historical records of India that gave women some liberty and the right to property. Skirmish Skirmishers are light infantry or light cavalry soldiers deployed as

3564-547: The Soviet Army routinely deployed more lightly armed motorized rifle regiments as skirmishers on the flanks or secondary sectors of a motorized rifle division on the offensive, and the heaviest units, backed by the heaviest armour, would fight in the division's main effort. The modern US military has light rapid-deployment Stryker brigade combat teams working with heavy-mechanized and armored units, with tracked M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and M1 Abrams tanks forming

3663-456: The U.S. became a nation, operated by The Great Binding Law of Peace , a constitution by which women retained matrilineal-rights and participated in the League's political decision-making, including deciding whether to proceed to war, through what may have been a matriarchy or "gyneocracy". The dates of this constitution's operation are unknown: the League was formed in approximately 1000–1450, but

3762-631: The abusua framework presented above. The Berber inhabitants of Gran Canaria island had developed a matrilineal society by the time the Canary Islands and their people, called Guanches , were conquered by the Spanish. The Serer people of Senegal , the Gambia and Mauritania are patrilineal ( simanGol in Serer language ) as well as matrilineal ( tim ). There are several Serer matriclans and matriarchs . Some of these matriarchs include Fatim Beye (1335) and Ndoye Demba (1367) – matriarchs of

3861-471: The family name or surname for one's descent group (as well as for all other descent groups in one's clan). While a mother normally takes care of her own children in all cultures, in some matrilineal cultures an "uncle-father" will take care of his nieces and nephews instead: in other words social fathers here are uncles. There is not a necessary connection between the role of father and genitor. In many such matrilineal cultures, especially where residence

3960-469: The national Constitution as Scheduled Tribes, "some ... [are] matriarchal and matrilineal" "and thus have been known to be more egalitarian." Several Hindu communities in South India practiced matrilineality, especially the Nair (or Nayar ) and Tiyyas in the state of Kerala , and the Bunts and Billava in the states of Karnataka . The system of inheritance was known as Marumakkathayam in

4059-463: The Akan: Some families are changing from the above abusua structure to the nuclear family . Housing, childcare, education, daily work, and elder care etc. are then handled by that individual family rather than by the abusua or clan, especially in the city. The above taboo on marriage within one's abusua is sometimes ignored, but "clan membership" is still important, with many people still living in

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4158-653: The American Civil War, the primary role of the infantry skirmish line was to screen the advance of a parent force and to disrupt the enemy's own reconnaissance efforts. With the mechanization of modern warfare , the role of infantry skirmishers was more or less combined with those of light cavalry , as mounted scouts in specialized reconnaissance vehicles took over the responsibility of screening large formations during maneuvers, in addition to conducting their own probing actions. Some modern military units still use light and heavily armed units in conjunction. For example,

4257-659: The Arabian peoples (first of all among the Amorites of Yemen, and among some strata of Nabateans in Northern Arabia); A modern example from South Africa is the order of succession to the position of the Rain Queen in a culture of matrilineal primogeniture : not only is dynastic descent reckoned through the female line, but only females are eligible to inherit. In some traditional societies and cultures, membership in their groups

4356-545: The Bribri people of Costa Rica and Panama is matrilineal; that is, a child's clan is determined by the clan his or her mother belongs to. Only women can inherit land. The social organization of the Cabécar people of Costa Rica is predicated on matrilineal clans in which the mother is the head of household. Each matrilineal clan controls marriage possibilities, regulates land tenure, and determines property inheritance for its members. In

4455-815: The Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee joined the Americans. He wanted to strike the Gulf Coast and wanted to use the Indians as a diversion from the Canadian theater. He sent Captain Hugh Pigot who anchored by the mouth of the Apalachicola River on May 10, 1814. They proceeded to give the Indians arms and a small British attachment of men. Pigot then reported to his superiors that he could have as much as 2,800 Creek and Seminoles trained in 8 to 10 weeks. This report would eventually lead to

4554-621: The Creek. With federal forces otherwise engaged in the War of 1812, Georgia , Tennessee , and the Mississippi Territory raised state militias for defense and engaged Native American allies, such as the Cherokee , traditional enemy of the Creek. Historian Frank L. Owsley, Jr. suggests that the state-sponsored military activity in the area likely prevented the British from occupying an undefended Gulf Coast in 1814. General Andrew Jackson commanded

4653-553: The Fort Mims attack was representative of the overall conflict between the Upper and Lower Towns. Jackson led a force of 3,000 men to Horseshoe Bend (Tohopeka in Creek), from Fort Williams on 14 March. This was after his scouts reported a force of 1,000 Red Stick warriors and their families were living there. Jackson's army had to march over 60 miles of rugged terrain. Before they left he gave out

4752-508: The Hopi "were and still are matrilinial" and "the household ... was matrilocal". Schlegel explains why there was female superiority as that the Hopi believed in "life as the highest good ... [with] the female principle ... activated in women and in Mother Earth ;... as its source" and that the Hopi "were not in a state of continual war with equally matched neighbors" and "had no standing army" so that "the Hopi lacked

4851-471: The Lenape prevented permanent settlement beyond what is now Jersey City. "Early Europeans who first wrote about these Indians found matrilineal social organization to be unfamiliar and perplexing. As a result, the early records are full of 'clues' about early Lenape society, but were usually written by observers who did not fully understand what they were seeing." The Mandan people of the northern Great Plains of

4950-596: The Seminoles. The stockade and fort have been reconstructed at the historic site. The state installed a historic plaque at the Fort Mims site that notes the British had provided weapons to the Red Sticks as part of its campaign against Captain Kaleb Johnson's troops in the South during the War of 1812. Note, the current article does not yet reflect the content of these further readings. Matrilineality Matrilineality

5049-650: The Southeast and then as Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the territory south of the Ohio River, lived among the Creek and Choctaw and knew them well. He commented in letters to President Thomas Jefferson that Creek women were matriarchs and had control of children "when connected with a white man". Hawkins further observed that even wealthy traders were nearly as "inattentive" to their mixed-race children as "the Indians"; Benjamin Griffith argues that Hawkins failed to understand

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5148-461: The Tallapoosa river and cut off the Red Sticks' retreat and prevent reinforcements. Coffee's brigade was made up of 700 mounted infantry and 600 allied Indians. Meanwhile Jackson marched to the breastworks. He had one six-pound and one three-pound artillery piece that started a bombardment at 10:30 a.m. This lasted till noon when Jackson realized that it was having little effect and decided to storm

5247-467: The United States historically lived in matrilineal extended family lodges. The Naso (Teribe or Térraba) people of Panama and Costa Rica describe themselves as a matriarchal community, although their monarchy has traditionally been inherited in the male line. The Navajo people of the American southwest are a matrilineal society in which kinship, children, livestock and family histories are passed down through

5346-515: The Upper Towns of the Creek Confederacy and supported traditional leadership and culture, including the preservation of communal land for cultivation and hunting, while opposing assimilation into European American culture. The Creek had a matrilineal culture, in which a person's place and status were determined by their maternal clan. The Creek of the Lower Towns, who comprised the majority of

5445-404: The assimilation and loss of traditions, led by the chiefs William Weatherford , Menawa , and Peter McQueen of the Upper Towns. The war heightened the hostility between the Creek and the Americans in the Southeast, at a time when Americans had steadily encroached on Creek and other Native American tribes' territories, forcing land cessions under numerous treaties but always demanding more. After

5544-622: The background. Originally, Chinese surnames were derived matrilineally, although by the time of the Shang dynasty (1600 to 1046 BCE ) they had become patrilineal. Archaeological data supports the theory that during the Neolithic period (7000 to 2000 BCE ) in China, Chinese matrilineal clans evolved into the usual patrilineal families by passing through a transitional patrilineal clan phase. Evidence includes some "richly furnished" tombs for young women in

5643-423: The citizen legions . Medieval skirmishers were generally commoners armed with crossbows or longbows. In the 14th century, although long held in disdain by the aristocratic Castilian heavy cavalry, the crossbowmen contributed greatly to the Portuguese victory at the Battle of Aljubarrota . Similarly, English archers played a key role in the English victory over French heavy cavalry at the Battle of Crécy . In

5742-433: The clash of the opposing main forces. The aims of skirmishing were to disrupt enemy formations by causing casualties before the main battle and to tempt the opposing infantry into attacking prematurely, thus throwing their organization into disarray. Skirmishers could also be effectively used to surround opposing soldiers in the absence of friendly cavalry . Once preliminary skirmishing was over, skirmishers participated in

5841-418: The closer relationship that children in Creek culture had with their mother's eldest brother, closer than with their biological father, because of the importance of the clan structure. Chief of Coweta, William McIntosh was a leader of the Lower Creek. During the Creek War he opposed the Red Sticks and sided with the Americans instead. He joined Andrew Jackson as a Major who was impressed with him. Because he

5940-467: The constitution was oral until written in about 1880. The League still exists. Other Iroquoian-speaking peoples such as the Wyandot and the Meherrin , that were never part of the Iroquois League, nevertheless have traditionally possessed a matrilineal family structure. The Kogi people of northern Colombia practice bilateral inheritance, with certain rights, names or associations descending matrilineally. Occupied for 10,000 years by Native Americans ,

6039-556: The data above, some scientists also say that kinship and residence in hunter-gatherer societies are complex and multifaceted. For example, when re-checking past data (which were not very reliable), the researchers note that about 40% of the groups were bilocal, 22.9% were matrilocal and 25% were patrilocal. A number of scientists also advocate multilocality, refuting the concepts of exceptional matrilocality (matrilineality) or patrilocality (patrilineality). Matrilineal surnames are names transmitted from mother to daughter, in contrast to

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6138-430: The early Neolithic Yangshao culture, whose multiple other collective burials imply a matrilineal clan culture. Toward the late Neolithic period, when burials were apparently of couples, "a reflection of patriarchy", an increasing elaboration of presumed chiefs' burials is reported. Relatively isolated ethnic minorities such as the Mosuo (Na) in southwestern China are highly matrilineal. Of communities recognized in

6237-547: The eldest sister, then to the rest: and after them to the heires male and female of the eldest sister; but never to the heires of the males. The Upper Kuskokwim people are the original inhabitants of the Upper Kuskokwim River basin. They speak an Athabaskan language more closely related to Tanana than to the language of the Lower Kuskokkwim River basin. They were traditionally hunter-gatherers who lived in matrilineal semi-nomadic bands. The Wayuu people of Colombia and Venezuela live in matrilineal clans, with paternal relationships in

6336-460: The end only thirty-two Americans were killed, and ninety-nine were injured. In contrast only twenty Red Sticks were able to escape, including their leader Menewa. Some of the notable people present at the battle were: Sam Houston, John Coffee, and Andrew Jackson The massacre had significant short-term and long-term effects. Alarmed by the fall of the fort and understanding little of internal Creek tensions, settlers demanded government protection from

6435-425: The female. In marriage the groom moved to live with the brides family. Children also came from their mother's clan living in hogans of the females family. The Tanana Athabaskan people, the original inhabitants of the Tanana River basin in Alaska and Canada, traditionally lived in matrilineal semi-nomadic bands. The Powhatan and other tribes of the Tsenacommacah , also known as the Powhatan Confederacy, practiced

6534-454: The fortifications. The first person to scale the fortification was Major Lemuel Montgomery who was promptly shot in the head. The fight for the breastworks was a quick but bloody affair but in the end Jackson's men prevailed. The Red Sticks fell back to their second line of defense, a breastwork of logs and underbrush. The Creeks asked for no quarter while their prophets where saying that it would be worse if they were captured. Jackson offered them

6633-421: The frontier who had become alarmed after the battle that had occurred at Burnt Corn. The fort was poorly guarded and the Red Sticks overwhelmed its defenses on 30 August 1813, killing most of the people who had taken refuge there. Estimates of the number of settlers at Fort Mims at the time of the massacre vary from 300 or so to 500 (including whites, slaves, and Lower Creek). Estimates of survivors have varied; at

6732-406: The land that is present-day New Jersey was overseen by clans of the Lenape , who farmed, fished, and hunted upon it. The pattern of their culture was that of a matrilineal agricultural and mobile hunting society that was sustained with fixed, but not permanent, settlements in their matrilineal clan territories. Leadership by men was inherited through the maternal line, and the women elders held

6831-442: The late 18th century, but the British Army learned firsthand of the importance of rifles during the American Revolutionary War and began experimenting with them shortly thereafter, resulting in the Baker rifle . Although slower to reload and more costly to produce than a musket, it was much more accurate and proved its worth during the Peninsular War . Throughout the conflict, British riflemen could selectively target and eliminate

6930-406: The late 19th century, almost all prehistorians and anthropologists believed, following Lewis H. Morgan 's influential book Ancient Society , that early human kinship everywhere was matrilineal. This idea was taken up by Friedrich Engels in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State . The Morgan-Engels thesis that humanity's earliest domestic institution was not the family but

7029-457: The lineage land farmed by its members, functions together in the veneration of its ancestors, supervises marriages of its members, and settles internal disputes among its members. The political units above are likewise grouped into eight larger groups called abusua (similar to clans ), named Aduana, Agona, Asakyiri, Asenie, Asona, Bretuo, Ekuona and Oyoko. The members of each abusua are united by their belief that they are all descended from

7128-555: The main armies. The Roman legions had a specialised infantry class, Velites , which acted as skirmish troops who engaged the enemy before the Roman heavy infantry made contact, and the Carthaginians recruited their skirmishers from the native peoples across the Carthaginian Empire . The Roman army of the late republican and early imperial periods frequently recruited foreign auxiliary troops to act as skirmishers to supplement

7227-523: The main battle by shooting into the enemy formation, or they joined in melée combat with daggers or short swords. Their mobility made skirmishers also valuable for reconnaissance , especially in wooded or urban areas. In Classical Greece , skirmishers originally had a low status. For example, Herodotus , in his account of the Battle of Plataea of 479 BC, mentioned that the Spartan Army fielded 35,000 lightly armed helots to 5,000 hoplites , but there

7326-406: The main enemy force by firing into their close-packed ranks and to prevent enemy skirmishers from doing the same to friendly troops. Because skirmishers generally fought in open order, they could take cover behind trees, houses, towers and similar items, thereby presenting unrewarding targets for small arms and artillery fire. Such tactics often made them vulnerable to cavalry. Some skirmishers had

7425-806: The matrilineal clan soon became incorporated into communist orthodoxy . In reaction, most 20th century social anthropologists considered the theory of matrilineal priority untenable, although during the 1970s and 1980s, a range of feminist scholars often attempted to revive it. In recent years, evolutionary biologists , geneticists and palaeoanthropologists have been reassessing the issues, many citing genetic and other evidence that early human kinship may have been matrilineal after all. One crucial piece of indirect evidence has been genetic data suggesting that over thousands of years, women among sub-Saharan African hunter-gatherers have chosen to reside postmaritally not with their husbands' family but with their own mother and other natal kin. Another line of argument

7524-512: The militia had provoked the attack, frontier settlers and U.S. officials became alarmed about the Red Sticks' actions on the frontier as a result. The Red Sticks decided to attack the garrison at Fort Mims in the Mississippi Territory (present-day Tensaw , in southwestern Alabama), in an attempt to reduce the influence of the Tensaw Creek who controlled the fort. Also at the fort were intermarried whites, and other settlers and their slaves from

7623-465: The more familiar patrilineal surnames transmitted from father to son, the pattern most common among family names today. For clarity and for brevity, the scientific terms patrilineal surname and matrilineal surname are usually abbreviated as patriname and matriname . There appears to be some evidence for the presence of matrilineality in Pre-Islamic Arabia , in a very limited number of

7722-486: The most, about three dozen have been claimed. At least 100 Creek attackers were found dead at the scene of the battle. History graduate student Karl Davis, in a manner contrary to prevailing scholarship at the time, interpreted the attack in a journal article treatment as a punitive expedition specifically directed against the Tensaw, a group of Lower Creek who were "separated from core Creek values." Hence, Davis does not believe

7821-482: The next century, they largely repeated that feat at the Battle of Agincourt . Such disasters have been seen as marking the beginning of the end of the dominance of medieval cavalry in general and of the heavy cavalry in particular. The Seven Years' War and American Revolutionary War were two early conflicts in which the modern rifle began to make a significant contribution to warfare. Despite its lower rate of fire, its accuracy at long range offered advantages over

7920-454: The officers and NCOs of French forces from outside musket range. During the War of 1812 , American riflemen again contributed to British casualties but also had to contend with the revised British light infantry tactics. A consequence of those wars' experiences was a trend to training line troops to adopt tactics that had been used only by skirmishers. The treatise New American Tactics , by General John Watts de Peyster , advocated making

8019-477: The other force from gaining an effective intelligence picture by engaging their scouts, and likewise forcing them to deploy. By the late 19th century , the concept of fighting in formation was on the wane. Heavy infantry had disappeared, and all infantry effectively became skirmishers. The term has become obsolete, but as late as World War I , it continued to be associated with battlefield reconnaissance screens, which are essentially modern skirmish lines. As in

8118-526: The poorer sections of society that made up skirmishers. Additionally, hit-and-run tactics went against the Greek ideal of heroism. Plato gives the skirmisher a voice to advocate "flight without shame" but only to denounce it as an inversion of decent values. Nevertheless, skirmishers then chalked up significant victories, such as the Athenian defeat at the hands of the Aetolian javelin men in 426 BC and, during

8217-480: The population, had adopted more European-American ways; in addition, they had more intermarriage among their women with white traders and settlers, and economic relations with the United States settlers. At the same time, the mixed-race children, such as the chiefs William Weatherford and William McIntosh , were generally raised among the Creek. Benjamin Hawkins , who was first appointed as United States Indian agent in

8316-466: The power to remove leaders of whom they disapproved. Villages were established and relocated as the clans farmed new sections of the land when soil fertility lessened and when they moved among their fishing and hunting grounds by seasons. The area was claimed as a part of the Dutch New Netherland province dating from 1614, where active trading in furs took advantage of the natural pass west, but

8415-402: The primary combat force. Apartheid South Africa 's military doctrine stressed the use of highly-mobile, light-mechanized forces that could cover ground swiftly while they kept heavier enemy armoured and infantry formations off balance and did not engage until the conditions were favourable. The lightly armed South African units used tactics such as rapid movement, flank harassment and confusing

8514-485: The regular forces, allowing them to engage only on favorable terms, taking advantage of better position or terrain, and quickly withdrawing from any threat of superior enemy forces. Though often critical in protecting the main army from sudden enemy advances, skirmishers are poor at taking or defending ground from heavy infantry or heavy cavalry . In modern times, following the obsolescence of such heavy troops, all infantry has become indistinguishable from skirmishers, and

8613-414: The same ancient ancestress. Marriage between members of the same abusua is forbidden. One inherits or is a lifelong member of the lineage, the political unit, and the abusua of one's mother, regardless of one's gender and/or marriage. Note that members and their spouses thus belong to different abusuas , mother and children living and working in one household and their husband/father living and working in

8712-524: The same war, the Athenian victory at the Battle of Sphacteria . Skirmisher infantry gained more respect in subsequent years, as their usefulness was more widely recognised and as the ancient bias against them waned. Peltasts , light javelin infantry, played a vital role in the Peloponnesian War , and well-equipped skirmisher troops such as thureophoroi and thorakites would be developed to provide

8811-599: The skirmish line the new line of battle, which was then a revolutionary idea. During the American Civil War , cavalrymen often dismounted and formed a skirmish line to delay enemy troops who were advancing toward an objective. An example was the action of the Union cavalrymen led by Brigadier General John Buford on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg . Skirmish lines were also used to harass enemy probing missions, hampering

8910-594: The smoothbore musket , then commonly used by regular armies. In both wars, many American frontiersmen served in the militia . The Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War was assisted by such irregular troops, such as the Minutemen , who engaged in skirmishing tactics by firing from cover, rather than in the open-field engagements that were customary at the time. Their tactics were influenced by experiences in fighting Native Americans . Militia in

9009-645: The spur to masculine superiority" and, within that, as that women were central to institutions of clan and household and predominated "within the economic and social systems (in contrast to male predominance within the political and ceremonial systems)", the Clan Mother , for example, being empowered to overturn land distribution by men if she felt it was unfair, since there was no "countervailing ... strongly centralized, male-centered political structure". The Iroquois Confederacy or League , combining five to six Native American Haudenosaunee nations or tribes before

9108-450: The state militias to campaign against the Red Sticks. The U.S. forces finally defeated the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814) on March 27, 1814. His forces killed or captured most of the Creek, but some survivors escaped to Florida, where they joined the Seminoles and continued the resistance to the United States. The war had begun over internal divisions among Creek who resisted

9207-478: The term has effectively lost its original military meaning as a distinct class of soldier, although skirmishing as a combat role is commonplace. In ancient warfare , skirmishers typically carried bows , javelins , slings and sometimes light shields . Acting as light infantry with their light arms and minimal armour, they could run ahead of the main battle line; release a volley of arrows, sling stones, or javelins; and retreat behind their main battle line before

9306-520: The traditional culture of the Guna people of Panama and Colombia, families are matrilinear and matrilocal, with the groom moving to become part of the bride's family. The groom also takes the last name of the bride. The Hopi (in what is now the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona ), according to Alice Schlegel , had as its "gender ideology ... one of female superiority, and it operated within

9405-475: The universality of matrilocality or patrilocality , pointing out that hunter-gatherer societies have a flexible philopatry or practice multilocality, which in turn leads to a more egalitarian society, since both men and women have the right to choose with whom to live. According to some data, pastoralists and farmers strongly gravitate towards patrilocality, so patrilocality is a common phenomenon among non-Pygmies. But among some hunter-gatherers, patrilocality

9504-664: The war, the Creek were forced to cede half their remaining lands to the U.S. Within twenty years, they lost the remainder of their lands as a result of the Indian Removal Act , and the forced removal to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River . Some remnant Creek chose to stay in Alabama and Mississippi and become state and U.S. citizens, but treaty provisions to secure their land were not followed, and many became landless. Some Creek migrated to Florida, where they joined

9603-615: The women, whereas personal property is owned and inherited regardless of gender. In contrast to most other Muslim cultural groups, men wear veils but women do not. This custom is discussed in more detail in the Tuareg article's clothing section , which mentions it may be the protection needed against the blowing sand while traversing the Sahara desert . The Bororo people of Brazil and Bolivia live in matrilineal clans, with husbands moving to live with their wives' extended families. The clan system of

9702-527: Was half-white and, in Jackson's eyes, "civilized" he was able to gain Jackson's trust and when Georgians attacked friendly Creek settlements only McIntosh's complaints made it to the government. His actions in the Creek War mainly joining Jackson alienated him after the war was over in Creek society. By supplying long rifles in trade, England was one of the principal nations (with Spain ) that helped and encouraged Native Americans to fight against America, mainly as

9801-670: Was – and, in the following list, still is if shown in italics  – inherited matrilineally. Examples include the Cherokee , Choctaw , Gitksan , Haida , Hopi , Iroquois , Lenape , Navajo and Tlingit of North America ; the Cabécar and Bribri of Costa Rica; the Naso and Kuna people of Panama; the Kogi , Wayuu and Carib of South America; the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra , Indonesia and Negeri Sembilan , Malaysia ;

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